Software:Ninja Master's: Haō Ninpō Chō

Ninja Master's: Haō Ninpō Chō
Japanese Neo Geo AES cover art
Developer(s)	ADK
Publisher(s)	SNK Neo Geo CD JP: ADK D4 Enterprise (Virtual Console) HAMSTER Corporation (PS4/Switch/Xbox One)
Producer(s)	Hiroyuki Toda
Designer(s)	Kazuhiro Shibata
Programmer(s)	Teruaki Shirasawa
Artist(s)	Kazushige Hakamata
Composer(s)	Hiroaki Kujirai Hiroaki Shimizu Yuka Watanabe
Platform(s)	Arcade Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Virtual Console, Xbox One
Release	1996 Arcade WW: 27 May 1996 Neo Geo AES JP: 28 June 1996 NA: 28 June 1996 EU: 28 June 1996 Neo Geo CD JP: 27 September 1996 Virtual Console NA: 22 November 2012 PAL: 10 January 2013 Nintendo Switch WW: 17 January 2019 PlayStation 4 JP: 17 January 2019 Xbox One WW: 17 January 2019
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Single-player Multiplayer
Cabinet	Upright
Arcade system	Neo Geo MVS
CPU	M68000 (@ 12 MHz), Z80A (@ 4 MHz)
Sound	YM2610 (@ 8 MHz)
Display	Raster, 320 × 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors

Ninja Master's: Haō Ninpō Chō is a ninja-themed competitive fighting game produced by ADK and originally released in 1996 for the Neo Geo arcade and home platform. Ninja Master's was the sixth and final fighting game produced by ADK, following the four games in the World Heroes series and Aggressors of Dark Kombat. It was later featured in the 2008 compilation ADK Damashii for the PlayStation 2. Ninja Master's was also re-released on the Neo-Geo X handheld system in 2012, and for the Virtual Console in 2013.

Gameplay

Gameplay screenshot showcasing a match between Sasuke Sarutobi and Tenho.

Ninja Master's follows the conventions of many previous 2D fighting games released for the Neo-Geo. The player must defeat their opponent in combat in a series of best-two-out-of-three matches. Characters can change between using the character's weapon or fight hand-to-hand during the middle of combat. Like the Art of Fighting series, Ninja Master's features a super meter.

Fighters

• Sasuke Sarutobi - the main hero of the game. A ninja expert and betrayer of his own ninja clan who seeks to avenge his father's death.
• Houoh - a skilled exorcist who is unsure of his own powers.
• Goemon Ishikawa - a ninja thief whose goal is to collect the largest treasures in Japan.
• Kamui - the rival to Sasuke. An old acquaintance of Sasuke's, Kamui hopes to destroy him after Sasuke has forsaken the clan.
• Karasu - a serial killer and bodyguard who is obsessed with ravens (Karasu means "Raven" in Japanese).
• Kasumi Kotenkenbu - a ninja apprentice whose grandmother prevents her from going after Nobunaga.
• Natsume - an orphan who, after having a nightmare, strives to kill Nobunaga. She reappears in a hack of Sega's Streets of Rage 2 called Girls' Paradise.
• Oda Nobunaga - the final boss of the game. A tyrant brainwashed by the demon known as Haoh, Nobunaga sets out to conquer the world.
• Raiga - a renowned bounty hunter whose mission is to defeat Goemon.
• Ranmaru Mumiyo Kagura - the sub-boss of the game. An immortal and loyal servant to Nobunaga, Ranmaru attempts to vanquish Haoh, who possesses Nobunaga.
• Tenho - an old Japanese man who was abandoned in Korea at birth.
• Kongouarahan Unzen - a former monk in search of the best aspect of life.

Like various ADK games, SNK Playmore also revived characters from Ninja Master's in later releases. The main character of Ninja Master's, Sasuke, appears as an SNK character card in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS.

Reception

Reception
Review scores Publication Score AllGame (Neo Geo) EGM 4/10 (Neo Geo) Next Generation (Neo Geo) Nintendo Life (VC)

Covering the Neo Geo AES version, the four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly offered some praise for the game's special moves and the ability to fight with or without a weapon, but generally panned Ninja Master's for its failure to distinguish itself from the many previous Neo Geo fighting games and for its outdated graphics, particularly the small character sprites and lack of scaling. Shawn Smith and Sushi X remarked that the game's mediocrity is shocking given SNK's history and the $150 price tag. In contrast, a Next Generation critic found originality to be the game's biggest asset, opining that though Ninja Master's lacks the balance and smoothness of the best Neo Geo fighting games, the ability to switch between weapons and bare-handed combat in mid-fight "adds dramatically to the strategy."

In a retrospective review of the Neo Geo AES version, Allgame's Kyle Knight called it "a fairly good fighter that could've been a lot more."

External links

• Ninja Master's: Haō Ninpō Chō at GameFAQs
• Ninja Master's: Haō Ninpō Chō at Giant Bomb
• Ninja Master's: Haō Ninpō Chō at Killer List of Videogames
• Ninja Master's: Haō Ninpō Chō at MobyGames